[citation][nom]Thunderfox[/nom]FF can remember your tabs by default, or ask you every time you close it if you want it to. It also remembers your last session if it crashes.[/citation]
Yeah, its easy to click that off. But yeah, as long as the user make that choice - otherwise it'll wipe out the tabs, which is what most users do by clicking "just quit". The Crash part is not really a feature, just something I was stating.
Other cool OPERA TAB features not found on some other browsers:
- Tab views (see thumbnails in all main tabs) - kind of ugly, somewhat useful.
- Thumbnail view (hover you mouse over the tab), very much like Windows7 Tasks buttons.
- Tab Stacking. Group tabs together in an easy to mange single tab. It will open up with thumbnails like Windows7 task bar to choose the tab to use). For example, my car developed a problem and I have 4 browsers tabs with parts & help issues - but they are grouped under a single tab. I do work on two different websites, so I now group 3-4 tabs into one now. This is freeing up my browser window in many ways - its great.
Chrome has gone through "10" versions, yet you can't tell by functionality the different... other than added standards for HTML5, etc.
[citation][nom]Thunderfox[/nom]I never cared about things like speeddial because I have bookmarks for the things I visit regularly, and for everything else I tend to leave the page open in a tab until I don't need it any more.[/citation]
Bookmarks are a text base menu listing of sites. We may have dozens of not hundreds of favorites/bookmarks. Speed Dial is a visual aide for the top sites you may want to view. When you open a new TAB, its there. I don't use IMDB, newegg and a few other sites everyday... but I can open a tab, click a single button and I'm there. You can choose 6~24 buttons. Its handy - better than having even MORE tabs open...
Of course it can set to a single home page.
[citation][nom]Thunderfox[/nom]What is superior about Opera's text search? FF's is at the bottom as well.[/citation]
When you use it... then you'll know what makes it far superior to anything else. The bottom location is NOT "a feature". I had to add it to the bottom because I use it everyday. Since Opera 10, they removed it for a cleaner look. Otherwise, like FF or Chrome, you CTRL-F.
But Chrome has recently changed their text search to work very much like Opera... 8~9.
I'd give text search scores to the browsers as:
Opera 11 = A
Safari 5 = A+ (it pops a bit more, recently works like Opera)
Chrome 11 = B (recently works like Opera)
IE 8 = B (recently works like Opera - since IE8)
FF 3.x = D
Point is, Operas text search style has been around longer than the existances of the other browsers.
[citation][nom]Thunderfox[/nom]Opera is just Opera, so it's got no advertising machine behind it. Also you still hear the occasional report of a site not working right or looking right with Opera[/citation]
You are right about that. They don't have MS, Apple, Google or GNU/Netscape/AOL to pay for and support those browsers. Opera screwed up big-time by wanting to CHARGE for their browser. Very difficult to SELL a program when IE & Netscape were free.
Then Opera 5~8.5, they made it free - but with AD-BANNERS... which made the brower ugly and people would constantly hack out the advertising. Since about Opera 8.5 - it has been a free browser.
About the time of 8.5, FF had hit 2.0 and IE7 was released. I was an IE user since 3.0. I went with FF 2.0 and it didn't do many things right (the way I need them to - and they still don't) I used FF 2.x on and off for 2 weeks but kept going back to IE6.
Then I saw TomsHardware announce that Opera 8.5 was free. And with that, I was about to switch OFF of IE as my primary browser since day one. Just changed to a custom skin that looked more Windows-MCE like.
Opera 10, they finally fixed 95% of their printer issues (still weaker than IE) - but the UI was amazing. I even joined the beta program and with thousands of others - we helped made Opera what it is today. (There were weekly beta releases for us).
Yes, there ARE standards. And as a web developer, IE always broke things. IE6 not compatible with IE7, IE8 etc. Stuff that works for Opera, FF, Chrome - breaks under IE8.
When I develop for webwork, Chrome and Opera are my benchmark... As long as IE doesn't completely screw something up, I let its errors be. *I DON'T* design for IE. I make stuff that works on desktop, iPads/tablets and iPhones/Androids. And yes, IE is the dog.
Ask any web developer... we HATE IE. The only reason I have FF, Safari and use IE is to check for problems.
IE 9, the latest from MS - still doesn't include a spell checker... how stupid is that?
For almost ALL websites, Opera has NO PROBLEMS. There are about 2-5 sites I use that don't or refuse to work with Opera. Some developer tools are not certified - so I use Chrome. Others are because the developer purposely look up the brower type and refuse to load onto Opera - which is BS when its a city public site.
((Just in, just checked my city site, Opera 11 works in all sections now - not perfectly as the errors on on the site)) These problem sites tend to be MS (of course) and those using ASPX (MS webservers) Opera has the option to "fake" being IE or FF - which is now more buried as in the old days, many Opera users pretended to be IE.
Tomshardware have run all these browsers through various tests, and Opera is constly at the top for compatiblity. Chrome is top. FF is a bit lower, IE is always at the bottom.
My experince with IE9 is very limted... I already like it over IE8, but I'll be sticking with Opera. IE is still bad about tab-browsing, with pop-ups and addition windows opening up a whole new task bar item - which is WRONG. FF, Opera and others know how to keep the tabs where they belong.
By all means, I want to see IE total market share get down below 30%. This would increase compatiblity between all browsers.
Other than constantly improving on their brower (there are still areas of improvement) - Not sure how Opera can get the word out. Amazon.com installs it on Kindles or Facebook requires it?
MS has Operating Systems. Apple has Macs and iOS devices. Google has a search engine and Android devices. FF has GNU / Linux.
I and others can only recommend people to try and use Opera - there are tens of millions of us out there. Its free to try, so whats it going to hurt?
Ah, FF 4.0 is finally public... guess I'll give it a spin.... I notice from the screen shots... it looks like.... more like OPERA... or actually like IE9. IE9 looks stupid with the big round Back button that is cut-off (Vista).
I'm willing to try new software, never know if ya find something better. I use notepad++ which is 1000x the text editor that Windows notepad is (it has tabs and tons of tools - 100% free).